A Rather Unique Escape Room

Posted by & filed under Marketing & Strategy, Personal Tax, Student life.

Description: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has launched a unique service to help educate Ottawa residents how to avoid being defrauded. Inside the city’s St. Laurent Shopping Centre mall shoppers will find the the ‘Be Smart Scam Escape Room’ where they can move about three rooms, answering various challenges that will boost their knowledge about… Read more »

More Headaches at Apple

Posted by & filed under Financial Accounting, Marketing & Strategy, Student life.

Description: In January, European officials slapped a $1.8 billion Euro fine on Apple for its practices in the music streaming space. Now the U.S. government is going after Apple for anti-competitive practices in its smartphone business. The Justice Department stated that “Apple undermines apps, products, and services that would otherwise make users less reliant on… Read more »

Wordle Imitators Beware!

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Student life.

Description: Lots of people love to play Wordle – the daily game featured by the New York Times. And because of the game’s popularity, as might be expected imitators have flocked in on the action. But now the Times is fighting back with take-down notices to the duplicators. The Times is seeing the imitators as… Read more »

McDonald’s System Goes Down

Posted by & filed under Data security, Financial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Friday was a tough day for McDonald’s restaurants in several countries as system issues brought business to a standstill. Very early Friday morning Brian Rice, McDonald’s Chief Information Officer, reported the chain “experienced a global technology system outage, which was quickly identified and corrected.” Temporary shutdowns appeared to be required in countries such as… Read more »

Does Apple Owe You?

Posted by & filed under Financial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Last week a judge at the British Columbia Supreme Court approved Apple’s offer to pay up to $14.4 million to settle a class-action suit regarding its iPhone 6 and 7. At the heart of the case was a contention that Apple used software updates that deliberately slowed down the old phones once the iPhone… Read more »

Big $ for Travelling Nurses

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Student life.

Description: The Auditor General of New Brunswick, Paul Martin, has decided that his Office will examine contracts for travel nurses paid for by the taxpayer. The contracts came under scrutiny after a national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, published an article on the use of high-cost travelling nurses in a number of provinces during the… Read more »

January Tough Month for Insolvencies

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Financial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Business insolvencies in January were about double of what they were in January 2023. One factor cited for the problem was the requirement to pay back loans of up to $60,000 under the Canada Emergency Business Account program by January 18. Simon Gaudreault of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says that “Insolvencies are… Read more »

“Junk Fees” from Cineplex

Posted by & filed under Financial Statement Analysis, Student life.

Description: This past week saw Canada’s Competition Tribunal holding hearings on Cineplex’s so-called “junk fees.” The Tribunal is looking at whether or not Cineplex can continue to charge movie-goers a $1.50 fee for purchasing a ticket online; or, will it declare that the fee meets the definition of a harmful business practice under the Competition… Read more »

Are Campus Vending Machines Watching You?

Posted by & filed under Data security, Student life.

Description: The University of Waterloo has asked for all 29 vending machines from Swiss company Invenda be removed from campus following word that the machines have a type of facial analysis capability. The matter came to light when one of the vending machines displayed an error message relating to “facial recognition,” prompting student responses on… Read more »

Lynx Airlines Shuts Down

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Student life.

Description: Low-cost carrier Lynx Airlines announced it would be shutting down February 26. Lynx informed its passengers travelling on later dates that they should seek refunds through their credit card provider rather than from Lynx. The discount airline got off the ground in 2022, but it blames such forces as inflation, high fuel cost, exchange… Read more »